>> we love you back. thanks for watching. >> on the first buzz better of 2015, mike huckabee with an announcement he is leaving fox news to "explore," a presidential campaign. >> i will not make a decision about running until late in the spring of 2015 but the continued chatter has put fox news into a position that isn't fair to them. >> which means he is running. why else would he give up a lucrative tv career? how much has the fox gig boosted his chances? >> a comeback for president obama getting positive press from the least on immigration on climate change, on cuba and an improving economy that is called "the obama boom." >> there has been so much effort put forward by the republicans to trash the economy, to

obstruct everything president obama dreamed of doing with the economy. we are living in the obama economy. the results are astonishing. >> today for the first time in six years americans feel good about the economy. that is probably because it is growing fast. >> the president citizens that credit and are the mainstream media trying to give him a boost? >> a most outspoken commentator on how he makes up his mind and his relentless criticism of the president. >> on the column you can correct yourself. on live television you are a wallenda on the high wire. >> a conversation with charles krauthammer and "good morning america" is the number one morning show and it is packed with stories like these. >> the shocking video taped someone did not want to you see. >> a colorado man is charged with killing his wife and pushing her off the cliff.

>> they move away from serious news. this is media buzz and i am howard kurtz. mike huckabee has been openly organizing for a second run for president and took the plunge announcing that he is quitting fox news. >> a much as i have loved doing the show i cannot bring myself to rule out another presidential run. >> how much has the platform basketballed the former arkansas governor? we have the digital politics editor, and our guest from national public radio, and the chief congressional correspondent for the "washington examiner." huckabee talked about speculation and chatter of him running. fox executives questioned him a couple months ago because he was hiring operative and looking for space. did things reach the point where huckabee was so openly exploring

he had to leave? >> i don't know. i am glad i don't but i will say this you could not persist in the direction he was holding. there was in way and he was straightforward, it was untenable. kudos to him for making the jump. >> we have talked, going back 2011 and 12, not a wealthy man he was enjoying making millions so this is not a decision he would reach light lit to depart fox. >> it shows he is serious about exploring another run. it doesn't mean he cannot come back in the future, the revolving door works both ways. there is a rule, you cannot run for president and have a show on a network that is going to be fair and balanced and he had to go. it was cut and dry. >> a lot of potential candidates try to extend the run because they like the exposure. >> on the program on saturday night, he talk about god, he is a former minister of god, not

putting him on this earth just to make money and he talk about learning to govern during the decade if little rock. should he be able to use fox to make this announcement? >> it is an info-mercial. >> it was. it want week after week and last night is when he discussed it formally but there have been hints along the way and he has been boosted by showing where he stands. this is happening at all the networks. politicians are moving in and out of the role of t anchor and suddenly running for something and it has been going on for years there is a question, could this be campaigning on the air? >> it certainly is a great way of keeping your self in the public eye chris. fox has drawn criticism for being a launching pad for politicians in 2012 with rick santorum andn

carson left when he decided to get serious. and scott brown before the run and he came back to fox and cnn did this all the time with pat buchanan. >> it did not end very well with former speaker gingrich and rick santorum former senator santorum through fox. they felt their coverage and i heard it from them they thought the come they received was not as good as people whose fox was briefing against. let me say this: the amount of time and effort put into misunderstanding the way the political unit and the political coverage at the fox news channel goes enormous and everyone thinks they can read the tea leaves and thinks they know but i tell you right now absolutely true there is not a secret agenda. whether you contribute or not our political team is doing it the right way. >> to follow up you are saying obviously when gingrich and santorum were featured as contributors, they came on and

said what they want and they felt they everyone not treated fairly. >> they made no secret. there was a garage fire in the times square claim they were mishandled by fox and they were wrong. >> gingrich went to cnn. >> the bottom line, being on fox is an incredible boost for any conservative politician who is thinning of running for office regardless of how they wine and complain. it is worth its weight in gold. >> i agree completely. i think the money factor plays in a few years ago, governor huckabee decided not to leave for 9 exact reason we just discussed. he didn't want to give up the salary. i think it shows how he must be to walk away now versus four years ago. the poll numbers are pretty good and he sometimes is at the top of the palms. >> bank account is better than it used to be. >> it has beening if but a boost

but walking away he risks never getting the show back and are there eager people willing to fill the airspace but if he does well he could be more valuable. >> the media completely underestimated huckabee in 2008 with barely any coverage a month before the iowa caucus which he won. >> and went on to win other states but not the nomination. >> moving on to another aspect of political coverage looking at the obama boom we have been flooded with stories and how the president was ending 2014 on a high note by taking bold and historic action on cuba and climate change and immigration. and his stock is raising. >> there is a jump in the job approval rating now the eye opening shift, the economy is roaring back with the dow closing today at 18000, the numbers do not lie. the president isn't done.

>> the economy is billioning. face it, the economy is booming. >> the economy is booming. >> booming. >> when is the last time the republicans pulled that off? >> so if president obama has gotten the blame if years of a lousy economy should the media now say he is entitled to credit because unemployment is lower and gas prices are lower? >> he do what they want. the ifs are bradley uniformly overcredited or overblamed as far as the economy as if the president woke up and said, we should have expand exploration of we shale gas and just do that. he is fortunate but the other thing that is happening after a terrible year, i mean a brutal year, there are many especially some of the folks you were sharing, that wanted to help the president have a good close to the year were looking for good news. >> it seems that msnbc and i was

watching when i took a couple days off, one of the liberal magazines on how the president has brought economic salvation. presidents are overly blamed and now the numbers are better the coverage should get better? >> and putting msnbc aside because they are boosters for the president, like you find many critics on fox the approval rating closely tracks the economy. the economy is getting better. it is no surprise. he came out of his torpor and started doing things. people like it when the president is active. >> in 2009 when the dow was below 7000 hannity talked about him thanking the market and the bear market and now the dow is over 18000 so people would like this president are going to try to give him some of credit.

>> what is new in media compared to 10 years ago there are more cheerleaders on both sides. if it was a republican president hannity might be talking about a comeback for that president but what is new you have like msnbc and news shows like hand at this time or others, daily caller and the huffington post with platforms to boost whoever they favor in the white house and you are seeing that in the coverage. >> he can promote him on that platform but a good economy and a president's rising approval rating, that presents a real challenge to conservatives media, and to the republicans in general, because howard what kind of context will they put that in? talk down the economy? >> they are mad enough about immigration. they are mad enough about a host of other issues they do not need to shop for issues to be upset. >> but the question of bias because these we presidents are

taking unilateral on immigration and cuba and a colleague on npr asked the president, do you feel liberated by the election? the underlying this is not why are you thumbing your nose at congress and doing in on your own, the media like the actions on immigration and cuba and therefore, it becomes a bold move. >> cuba this there was a full tizzy in washington but we are on a little vacation from the norm. the norm is the president has approval rating between 43 percent and 47 percent and he was at 48 percent and slipped back in but next year is about get what? the president fighting where congress over control of how we spend money in the united states. that is how it has been since 2011 and how it will be into 2015. >> the president has had the stage to himself in december and as the stock market market has gone up he has a good few weeks

but some folks lost per expectative because he did not have a good 2014. remember the shellacking in the midterms. we can send twitter at howard kurtz and i will read them after the program. a wide ranging discussion of licks and pundit try with charles krauthammer and the uproar over a politician speaking to an atheist group. has the

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>> and scalise is in trouble for speaking to a devicive group and he has made inflammatory statements. >> overall, though, it is true, but the scalise story has been handled well. of course liberal media outlets are going to jump all over it but if you put aside the predictable responses of the left and right media, i would say the scalise story has been put in contempt. people are not saying he is a racist, that he agreed with what the group was doing, and they put it in the context of how much damage will it do? how much did he know at the time? this is an embarrassment if republicans but they were lucky it came during christmas when not a lot of people were paying attention. the cover has been covered relatively fairly.

>> what is mildly surprising is you expect conservative comators to say this happened 12 years ago why dredge it up? but you had people saying not only scalise but speaker boehner should resign. >> hannity believes if the waffles are evercrooked, speaker boehner should resign. it doesn't take a lot to get to that point to see boehner go. the media mishandling of the story was an interesting story. blogers say scalise spoke to david duke and he said, i'm sorry, i didn't know and someone said well, actually he didn't even talk to that group he talked to a group that was meeting in the same place and it wasn't that group. >> even david duke said he is not sure. >> the story just at the moment that the full feeding frenzy was about to rip scalise from limb

to limb it was a "tell a moment," like, well, never mind. >> why didn't scalise say that? >> he didn't know. >> i think the reason he is waffling, there is more to the story. press did their job. this is like a drop in the water. we get more information because reporters start digging and media can dig up old blog posts and we find in the past he was walked a fin line of trying to appeal to david duke voters and there are a lot of them so he is trying to walk that line. what is what we see speaking to the group and the association closer than has been reported with some of the people involved in this white supremacist. >> the journalists say they have never seen any other evidence of racially charged or questionable remarks but the media are driving this story because there was a sense that when scalise said he didn't know what kind of

group it was it was not plausible, the way he was spinning. >> this is why you see both sides coming after scalise. if you are going to say you don't know that shows you are incompetent. if you say i was a young politician and i didn't know now we find there are other associations that show this is a little bigger than speaking to a group he thought was a civic organization. >> we will have you back later. ahead on "media buzz," the most popular morning show in america "good morning america" is that because of all of the stories about crime and scary subjects?

>> "good morning america" has had a 16 year winning streak on top and it is hard to miss the fact that george stephanopolis and robin roberts devote less

time to traditional news and more to murder and kidnapping and consumer stories that are scary. >> a hunt for a tiger on the lose with hundreds of police and helicopters searching. >> a shocking story of a young woman suing her estranged parents for check tuition. >> shocking home invasion, two lawyers started with stabbing a virginia couple. >> also, we have dramatic 9-1-1 calls as a family pursues their stolen iphone telling police they are tracking the bad news. warning for everyone. listen up. >> joining me is television and media critic for "the "baltimore sun"." >> perk has voted and that is a winning formula. >> it is beyond tabloid, it is interesting to see george and robin two of the smartest people on network news so comfortable. at first i thought, without this is stab lloyd. it is beyond to be lloyd. but the interesting thing is you

saw it in a clip where it said rival video. the votes are driving. i wrote a piece about raw video driving our national agenda and this is what it looks like when video is driving what you do. it is astonishing. i saw a segment two week ago where they showed an s.u.v. stuck on the freeway and cars slamming into it at 60 or 70 miles per hour and they kept playing it over and over and over and we kept watching. then they said, if you see a car stopped, you should try for go around it and one of the anchor women said that is a very good requested. that is news you can use. it was like the worst local news in america. >> "good morning america" does good journalism and good interviews but i was shocked and we saw this, how often it begins with shocking video, shocking warnings and someone must have research showing this gets

people interested. >> this is out of happened book but it is where we are in terms of technology because this is win-win-win. you show this on air and people watch but it translates to the online product so you are driving an ought why ensure to online. this is the name of the game. these we viral votes as you know, this is the point of the realm cross all media legacy newspapers want it on their website. >> and george stephanopolis was so steeped in politics when he got the "good morning america" and he talked about trying to do more indepth and he is talking about sensational murder and it seems like aist behalf talent. >> he is making a salary, they are number one so --. >> hard to argue with being number one. >> the american public is being cheated when you ask, what stories represents they doing because they do these? when you don't use the wisdom of stephanopolis and robin roberts and you have them introducing

pieces like this that anyone could introduce, you are wasting it. i don't want to overstate this but when you talk about dumbing down a country dumbing down a national discussion, this is a wanting. the producers will say we give people the news and information they need to get through the day. you think that is the news and information you need? >> briefly with "today," in second place matt lauer lands big interviews and cbs is in third but modest increase senate ratings and more of a hard news approach but people have a choice. >> "today," goes to celebrity interviews and performance such as garth brakes and nicole kidman. >> cbs is -- you do not hire charlie rose -- maybe charlie will be doing the votes. this is the formula. there you go cbs charlie rose doing tigers. >> david, thank you for stopping by. >> getting you early to watch

the shows charles krauthammer weighs in on there he ever worries about seeming too

back to "media buzz." >> a one time democrat a doctor by training, a newspaper columnist by trade and a fixture on special report and an unlikely tv star. what makes charles krauthammer tick? we sat down. >> welcome. >> measure to be here. >> you seem so certain if your opinion. do you look at an issue and say, gee, i am not sure what i think. >> when you are young. when you going -- i have been at this for 30 years and it is isn't that new issues are keeping up new forms of old

issues, but i have been in so many debates for so many years i have the rhythm of it. there are a lot of things that come up where i am ambivalent and i can go either way, for instance the situation with cuba, the way it was carried south a problem but i try to express my ambivalence. >> television doesn't like ambivalence. >> i am what linda on the high wire. write is painful. television is fun. when you write as you know, you get to go over it and the way i do it i spend my time editing, first the draft i do in 15 or 20

minutes and it is editing over and over and you smooth out the edges like sand paper and sculpture. >> good writing is rewriting. >> and it is fund. >> you have been critical of president obama on so many fronts. do you risk being seen as overly partisan? >> yes. i do. >> a risk you are willing to take? >> look, i had one rule. i started out life as a doctor and i quit to get involved in some way in public debate and i did it for one reason: i felt there were a lot of things happening in my time and i wanted to have some small part in the development of things so i did this because there were things i wanted to say, things i believe in. if why say what i believe and what i really think this whole career is pointless. there is one other point: if you

try to taylor what -- tailor what you say to fit you miss the point. this was a story about a spy would preferred to tell the truth it was easier to memorize. >> you talk about immigration which is a thorny issue in 2006 and "washington post" you said border fence plus amnesty yes amnesty, shock and awe, full legal normization, and return for full border enforcement. i am sure some do not like to hear the word "amnesty." i but the that in my come up and i could have left it out. i would not change a word and i believe it today the way i did then. it is less popular now than it was in the burn years. it was a bush idea at the time. however, just because of the fashion has changed no reason i

should. >> you do not feel like you have shifted your position. >> it is the same. you give me enforcement and i give you amnesty. >> short of citizenship i don't think the generation that came across it legally or to pilot or have a voice in our political evolution in the vote but legalization? a work staying here? yes, sure. >> the new republic just suffered has resignation after the editor was fired, it was liberal but it employed you and fred barnes and andrew conservatives what do you think of the moment down there? >> it has become less relevant the one i happened to be there in the 1980's that was the heyday and in part it was because we had this mix in essence a liberal magazine and i was more lib ran than i am now and had been a democrat if my 20 and i spent my 30's at the "if you republic." >> a recover democrat?

i was getting mug by reality and it was a slow-motion mug and i came out of it intact and a conservative a decade later. on the foreign policy, i did most of the writing on that and i was always conservative on that. people do not remember that in the 1970s there was a strong conservative wing of the democratic party. pat no one hand humphrey, scoop jackson, they were called the coalition for democratic majority and there were a lot of hard liners and that is where i came out of. joe lieberman is the last of those and he had no home in the help. >> but can a member focusing on exclusively policy and politics break even if the aim of free stuff on the internet? >> in the past "the new republic," never did. >> probably lost money. >> exactly.

the joke was they were in the black one year and had a pizza party to celebrate and that put them in the red. s a reporter is it depressing that it is hard other for print publications of this kind to make it anymore? >> i am not sure though ever had an easy time. "the nation," has an angel. and "weekly standard," i am not sure if they make money "the national review," you try to break even so you do not ruin your benefactor and bankrupt him but it has been that way. >> you are trained as a doctor. does that influence your political ideas? the sanity of people in the public arena? never. it never does. however my training as an m.d. has made me particularly open to the evidence. when you talk about the

evolution from a liberal to a conservative it was not the clouds parting and a shaft light from the sky. i was open to the evidence on the war on poverty, the great society which i believed in and i saw it didn't work at least the evidence i read. i changed. that is the major influence. >> thanks for letting us put you on the couch. >> happy to be with you. >> ahead how the media handles the latest missing plane. mike huckabee shakes up the 2016 race by leaving fox news. does it matter whether the reporters like him? or jeb? or rand? or hillary clinton? so ally bank r r r r r r

test

we're back with the panel with mike huckabee leaving fox news to explore16. huckabee has left fox, but most people like the guy and find him accessible. how much does that buy you? >> it gets you attention in the beginning. he will not have trouble getting earned media but ask john mccain what happens over a period of time. but they tire of you and it is probably negative in the long run. >> a number of reporters -- i

don't -- --. >> when i worked for the "miami herald," these things go a long way and soften the media and i see the way they are much harder on the candidates who keep them at arm's length. i saw that with the campaign of michele bachmann and hillary clinton. >> i worked in new york and i got hour long calls from mario cuomo but he was engaged. >> rand paul gives a lot of interviews and he is said to be the most interesting guy in politics. >> he is riding a wave warm media feeling but in the end reality sets in and you do not win a primary because the media likes you but there is no doubt he is in the nice make. hillary clinton not so much. >> that is what i was coming to, hillary clinton had a testy

relationship with the 2008 campaign and the scars go back to the time of first lady and i think it hurt. i don't know how she will approach the media. >> indicative of an attitude they would like to float her through the process in a bubble but that is not what works because people want to know you. every election is character and trust election. if people do not know you and see you if real life it does not happen. >> the we floating in the bubble is the same thing as inest bright strategy which everyone knows including the hillary clinton team is the wrong approach. >> some are watching saying who cares if the reporters like these people? the fact is, journalists are human beings and if they fly around the country with this access... >> you agree. it does matter at margins. it is conveyed in the tone of the profiles. >> and the headlines and type of stories reporters write. what you see in federal -- terms

of how much you want to investigate and we saw that with john mccain and president obama and the press was if love with rebound and he get the more favorable treatment during the campaign so it matters. >> it will see with the huckabee treatment by the media as of tomorrow morning because he is no longer a fox news host. >> after the break from michael strahan to bob costas the founder of tmz and the most buzzy interviews of

nowlook of >> now our most intriguing interviews the last year and we talked to bob woodward the day

after ben bradley died and asked about the risks of report watergate. >> you are not naming the sources when you publish and you believe you have good sources but we do not have documents, we do not have tapes, we do not have votes you go home with a lump in your stomach. it is a kind of...not doubt but we thought maybe the whole story would never come out l is a great blessing in all of this for older reporters like you and myself and for younger reporters, the facts. who are the witnesses? how do they know this? do they have an ax to grind? it is a reality now in my view that in the obama administration there are a lot of unanswered questions about the i.r.s.

particularly. if i were young i would move to cincinnati where the i.r.s. office is and set up headquarters and talk to everyone. >> i love that. go to cincinnati young man. >> i had a spirited we exchange after they obtained votes of ray rice pumping -- punching his fiance. >> when you get the exclusives is it changing the image of tmz as being a tabloid operation? >> we have been around for nine years and if you look at all the stories we have break were there are stories literally that every newscast in america has put on their air so i would take issue with the way you are describing it because if that is the case, you guys have been spoon-fed this stuff over at fox news as well as elsewhere for nine years and you have been taking our stories so i will

rest on that. >> we live in the tmk world. i had a fox anchor, how much do you think tmz paid for the votes? i don't know if you paid but you have agencied a general practice. and that tarnish tmz and are some people motivated by money? >> you work for a news operation that pays for video. okay? agency that right now. fox news channel pays for video. so does abc and so does nbc and so does cnn and every news operation in america. newspapers, too, when you use pictures and you use images you pay for it. when you use splash video you pay for it. when a stringer says i have a picture of the fire you pay for it. >> i see it very differently but harvey a is good debater. >> athletes are boring and michael strayhorn turned morning t star has insight.

>> on the question of handling the media why is it you see the athletes say well, take it one day at a time, we beat a good football team. in other words, almost like they are trying to be boring. >> gives are trying to be boring because no one wants to have the coach say come to my office why would you say this? why would you do that? you don't want to be the sound bite guy. you are scared into not being yourself. that is the hard part about dealing with the media to be yourself and not be afraid but also being smart enough to know how to craft your happies and not be in trouble. >> bob costas has as nose for controversy. >> you have become a lightning rod for many conservatives including here at fox who feel you are way out there on the left. are you a wild eyed liberal with a deep voice and a love of sports? >> no. no.

no, i would be disingenuous to say i do not lean left of center. i will use an example that could be relatable to the fox audience. to the state department i am liberal i am like a juan williams liberal who will call out the excesses and the contradictions of the extreme left and to the extent i am conservative i am like a bernie goldberg conservative, some issues which i would agree with him. on the other hand, the no nothing part of the spectrum where people just reflexively defend phil robertson time person i am not in that camp and never. >> not a "duck dynasty," no people would be surprised who watch fox how much george will i read how charles charles krauthammer or on and on and how often i nod in agreement and respect those voices.

>> other interviews are posted on our website. still to come your top tweets and the media pouncing on another missing asian jet but this time steering clear of the black hole of speculation.

first a sad note.

espn anchor stuart scott lost his le w canc ence anchor lost his cancer battle at age 49 and it seems fitting to bid stuart scott farewell with his signature line. >> look back on television after the disappearance of malaysia airlines flight, we are dealing with another jet that vanished in the same region and cnn went wall to wall with the night that left indonesia there was little speculation about hijacking or black holes. >> breaks news, a search is underway after airasia carrying 162 people from indonesia to singapore lost contact with air traffic controllers. >> this is fox news alert, airasia from indonesia to singapore has gone missing. >> a search at sea is now suspended 5613 -- suspended

after a passenger jet when missing in southeast asia. >> they do hut know if it is in one piece or broken up. a spokesman said he could not return the report that the plane is turned upside down. >> why the outbreak of sanity? a likely cause of pilot trying to avoid a bad thunderstorm and parts of the wreckage were found after two days but i suspect something else was at work a desire to avoid a replay of all the conspiracy theories that made the media look ridiculous. >> few top tweets should the media give the president credit for approvalling economy? this is the obama economy, if he gets blamed when it is bad, he should get blamed when it is good. >> hell know, blame it on the business people. give obama credit but only if he takes the flames for the failure so he never does wrong he gets no credit.

>> living in an opinionated media world but a lot of people want the facts. >> that is it for this "media buzz," happy new year to all of you and i hope many of you got a break and are ready for a great new year. we hope you like our facebook payment, we post a last original content. e-mail me and we will respond on video and on facebook and on twitter. we are back here next sunday morning at 11 o'clock and 5:00 eastern with the latest >> it is monday january 5th. a fox news alert. posts in all of this heartbreak brand new information about how a 7-year-old little girl walked away from this plane crash which killed her entire family. >> she told me her parents were

dead. i asked her how did she knew that? she said i tried to wake them up and i couldn't wake them up. >> how the seoul surole survivor could be key in figuring out the crash. >> how the taliban leader used his twisted skill set. >> long live the king. >> are our family favorites harmless or two harsh for our children? we report you decide. "fox friends and friends first starts right now. ♪

>> matchbox 20 gets you started on this january morning 2016. you are watching "fox & friends first". i am lia gabriel-- leah gabrielle if nor ainsley earhardt. >> -- heather childers. >> i am ainsley earhardt. >> the child in the crash could be the key in finding out what went wrong. they are moving the wreckage to begin the investigation. >> the ntsb says a preliminary report of the crash could be available in 10 days. a more factual report could take up to a year. they have moved the plane from the crash site to a salvage facility where they can conduct a more thorough